Everyone seems to be speculating about who the “Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration” is. I don’t care, because whoever it is isn’t part of the resistance at all — they are an enabler and supporter of the goals of the administration. They even say it outright.
To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous. But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic. That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.
Don’t get me wrong. There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more.
See it for what it is: Republicans seeking to distance themselves from a bad president while still trying to support the same destructive policies. They are trying to represent the failings of this administration as the fault of personal incompetence of Donald Trump, hiding the fact that he is the apotheosis of Republican politics of the past 60 years.
Also, I don’t want to know who the author is. I hope they preserve their anonymity for years, so that the mad emperor starts violently tearing apart every asshole skulking in government in his efforts to root out the traitor. I hope it ends with every Republican shattered and fleeing in disgrace.
They better hope they remain anonymous precisely because of what you observe – aside from their claim to be protecting the republic from a lunatic they’ve also admitted to treason in breaking their oaths to frustrate the Presidents work for ideological purposes.
We’re going to need a bigger bucket of popcorn!
I’m guessing Pence.
Saad,
The Times said that whoever wrote it was in danger of losing their job. Pence is the one person Trump can’t fire.
Also, he’s a sniveling, hypocritical Christian bigot who’s sold his non-existing soul to Il Douchebag.
Anyway, I agree with PZ. All this will do is send Trump further over the edge.
Maybe it’s his hairdresser.
What this op-ed does is further confirm what many others have been saying about Trump’s manifest unfitness for office. First in Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury, now Bob Woodward’s Fear, and I’m sure there will be more. Impeach the s.o.b. already, before something truly awful happens.
What a Maroon,
Oh yeah, good point.
To put this in a Star Wars setting:
“You say you are resisting the Empire from within?”
“Yes. Anonymously, I am undermining the system.”
“So you tried to prevent the building of the Death Star?”
“Not at all. The Empire needs a robust military capable of destroying entire planets on a whim.”
“Then I guess you tried to protect the remaining Jedi against those demonstrably false accusations of treason?”
“Nope. Those people opposed the Emperor and must be hunted to extinction.”
“You must at least have fought Palpatine’s decision to grant himself indefinite emergency powers and dissolve the Senate?”
“We need a strong hand to guide the Empire.”
“It doesn’t sound like you’re doing much resisting.”
“Oh, i’ve been very active at picking up Palpatine’s most embarrassing spelling errors.”
“That’s pathetic. Why would you call yourself part of the resistance if you agree with Palpatine’s goals and actively support him in achieving them?”
“So I don’t get shot if the Rebel Alliance manages to win…”
The front runner seems to be Mike Pence, which is rather odd because he has supported Trump unquestionably throughout his disastrous first term. On the other hand, it makes perfect sense if Pence seeks to take the Executive Office himself, while becoming the savior of the Republican Party by personally ousting the most venal, immoral and corrupt American who ever held high office. As Myers implies, the venality of the GOP could then proceed unopposed — the Republicans would retain the House, and Pence would be looked upon as Christ himself.
chrislawson @ 8,
I seem to have created a monster.
weylguy @ 9,
See me @ 4:
Exactly. This is just some sniveling psychophant who has seen the writing on the wall and is trying to set up their next career move. Expect a tell-all book next summer.
The worst part of this is that it won’t matter. The people who support Trump will continue to support him no matter what. They will see this as the deep state trying to replace the people’s choice with their own person. And for those of us who despise Trump, there’s really nothing in it that we hadn’t already suspected to be true. Maybe he really could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and no one would care.
thirdmill301, one thing I’ve noticed lately on my commute is how the number of cars with Trump bumper stickers on them has dwindled to almost nothing. It’s like they’re actually embarrassed to be associated with a gigantic asshole. Who knew?
I don’t think Pence has either the brains or the balls for this.
@12: “The people who support Trump will continue to support him no matter what”
Yes, but the people who don’t support him are a majority. All they have to do is go out and actually vote. OK, they have to turn out in enough force to overcome the gerrymandering but the anti 45 majority is big enough to do that if they don’t sit on their hands. And at this point anyone who doesn’t vote the straight democrat ticket is a traitor. Not that the Dems are any great thing, but at least they are somewhat sane. Partly sane is a lot better than totally batshit crazy.
Ed Seedhouse,
I wish it was that simple, but you also have to consider how many people who disapprove of the orange monstrosity still support Republican candidates? How many don’t understand the connection between voting GOP and supporting Trump?
@8 chrislawson: Tarkin stopped that one administrator from being choked, the one who suggested their religious priorities were less important than military hegemony, which was a clear example of Vader violating the decorum on which the Empire was founded. Maybe he’s the secret rebel!
I don’t know what I can do with an anonymous op-ed. Is it worth more than rumor ? I don’t see how.
I say Pence. Who says that he can’t be fired? There is no precedent but if Trump says he’s fired then who will stand up against Trump? Certainly no the GOP Congress. Certainly not the GOP run SCOTUS.
Pence just realized that the saying, “The Lord helps those who help themselves” also applies to him. Beside, if he doesn’t get rid of Trump soo he knows that Mueller will be looking at him too (hopefully he already is).
#6 starfleetdude
You say that as if something truly awful hasn’t already happened. Impeachment will not save us, it will make things worse. It will make Pence President, and he knows how to play the game to actually get the things he wants, i.e., the things only Dominionists and hardline Republicans want. He’s not on his knees sucking up to Trump because he honestly believes he’s God’s Chosen Republican messiah.
Whoever wrote the op-ed is firmly in Pence’s camp, strewing preparatory palm leaves in his path while quietly humming hosannas.
I’m not American – but the author of the necessarily anonymous piece sounded like a patriot rather than a traitor to me. (Which is why Trump tweeted ‘TREASON?’ because he’s a demagogue with fascist tendencies not a patriot.) You seem to be saying the same thing as Trump (though for very different reasons.) Many on the US Right seem to think all Democrats are traitors. But some on the US Left appear to think all Republicans are traitors.
I don’t think this is Pence. (But what would a Britisher know.)
ridana,
Impeaching a President will definitely hurt the Republican Party bigly, which is why despite all the evidence we have about Trump’s unfitness for office they don’t want to impeach him. So they all express their concern and disappointment – but do nothing. In the meantime, we have a President who is for all intents and purposes has consistently done one thing – weaken U.S. standing in the world. Who benefits from that? Putin and Russia. Pence will not be worse in that regard, and that really does matter.
@thirdmill301:
(sigh)
You’re right. Anybody with a shred of human decency would have rejected Hair Furor right from the “if she weren’t my daughter, I’d be dating her” get-go.
As for me, I’m sure he could shoot someone on Fifth (“many people – I’ve shot so many people, it’s unbelievable”) and they would know, deep in their hearts, that he’s a hero, and the victim must have been a Mexican/radical Islamic terrorist/agent of the Deep State. The law might actually catch up with him, were he to really do this (wish I could say “would actually”), but his fans would not waver – they are really that far gone.
I do whole-heartedly hate cults.
starfleetdude: why would they want to impeach him? They’re getting all the stuff they actually want: tax cuts, deregulation, stacking the Supreme Court, etc, etc.
Traitor don bellowed because anything which does not completely support him being the bestingest ever is spread by an . More simply, NOTHING traitor don bellows should ever be assumed to be truthful with independent collaborating evidence. Not even his name.
Dunc, the Republicans don’t want to impeach him of course. But they might have to if the situation becomes so intolerable that impeachment is preferable. As in, that pee pee tape coming to light, showing to all that Trump really is in Putin’s pocket.
A opinion column in the Grauniad, The madness is pouring out of the White House now, for all to see:
The pee tape won’t matter to them either. They’re not interested in the country, integrity of the office, manners, etc. They’re in it for the white supremacy, misogyny and other bigotries, and for the rich, the corporations and the guns. Pee tape detracts from none of those.
The danger that impeachment poses to goppers isn’t to their agenda–they’d get that with Pence in charge, along with a nice cherry of homophobia on top. The danger is to their political careers–the Trumpistas wouldn’t forgive them, and they’d be primaried out of a job (no coincidence that the only Rethuglicans to speak out against Trump are either out of office or retiring).
As an aside, the past couple of years have underlined the biggest blind spot in Madison’s scheme for the government–he (and the other framers) didn’t realize that he was setting up a system that was bound to devolve to a two-party system, and in fact would have been appalled if he had realized it. The common belief was that factions would be regional in nature, and that Congress would always be at least somewhat antagonistic toward the President. So the celebrated checks and balances work (more or less) when power is split between the parties, but not if one party has all the control (and especially if that party is scared shitless of its electorate).
A friendly reminder: Impeachment is a pipe dream. Removing Trump from office would require 67 senators to convict, so even assuming strong Democratic gains in the midterms (which are far from assured) and conviction votes from every Democratic senator (also far from assured) you’d still need more than a dozen Republican senators to jump ship and vote against their own party. This is not remotely plausible, barring a massive and unforeseeable shakeup in the political landscape. Even if the Mueller investigation unearths video footage of Trump snorting a line of coke off Putin’s tallywhacker, the GOP will still close ranks to protect him, as long as they’re getting their beloved tax cuts and corporate handouts.
We’re not getting a Hollywood Ending to this. There won’t be a single Hail Mary pass that wins it all. We’re in this for the long haul, my friends, and it will take us years to undo the damage the GOP has spent decades inflicting. And we’ll need to keep voting, and calling our congresscritters, and being involved in local politics. And we’ll need to keep fighting the war even if we lose a few battles. I humbly suggest imagining an easy and permanent victory just around the corner hurts us more than it helps.
Saad, the Republican Party is most concerned with one thing – winning elections. Well, that and enriching themselves. Their bigotry is a means to that end, mostly. If getting rid of Trump was better than keeping him, they’d get rid of him.
On “checks & balances” — another flaw is they don’t always exist. For instance, during the last year of two of Obama. teh thugs were basically refusing to review any proposed federal judicial nominations. There was nothing(?) anyone could do about this. Now that teh thugs are fully revealed to be nazis, they are approving shite- and arse-holes extreme-right and further-to-the-right to the judicary — and there is only a very weak “check & balance”, an impeachment, case-by-case, of each so-called “judge”. (The dummies don’t have the votes to stop the destruction of federal judgeships.) Judicial impeachments won’t happen until teh thugs are muted… The States is rapidly acquiring a judiciary which is not fair, not balanced, and not interested in the rule-of-law… with almost no (legal) way to correct, to “check & balance”, the problem. And the “checks & balances” to prevent the problem utterly failed (well, are non-existent).
The “checks & balances” systems presumes at least one “side” is sane. Bad judicial appointment — Senate rejects. (Problem here, of course, if it’s a “good” appointment and the Senate rejects, a variant of what happened to Obama.) In some cases, for instance, a veto, there is a mechanism to correct (an override vote in Congress). And if that is “wrong”, there are “unconstitutional” rulings by the courts, but that again depends on sane judges.
The current situation of a corrupt lunatic “president”, a corrupt lunatic majority in both houses of Congress, and an increasingly-dubious federal judgeships is unprecedented, and also exposes numerous flaws in the Constitution — arguably one of the main flaws being the presumption of “sanity” by at least one “side”.
Sounds like the 20th of July dudes in Germany. they were fine with the war and the war crimes, they were also smart enough to see they were losing and wanted to save their own hides.
PS I now see why some have suggested Pence.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45431300
But Pence actively chose Trump, like other right wing evangelicals. This author may have simply chosen to work for the Republicans/White House rather than Trump?
Forgive me if I’ve already told this joke here (I’m getting old and forgetful) but the average Trump voter reminds me of the guy who found a genie in a bottle who said, “You may have one wish, but whatever you get, your neighbor gets double.” Since he hated his neighbor and couldn’t bear the thought of his neighbor benefiting from his good fortune, he thought for a minute and said, “Can you make me blind in one eye, deaf in one ear, and lame in one foot?” Because so great was his hatred of his neighbor that he would rather suffer himself if he could make his neighbor suffer even more, than have something nice for himself if his neighbor got something nice too.
Most Trump voters would be far, far better off under Democratic policies than under Republican ones, but so would plenty of other people they despise — blacks, hispanics, immigrants, gays. And so they suffer themselves rather than elect public officials who would do things for those people. It’s stupid on steroids, but they’ve got their priorities.
One other thing — it’s not hard to figure out why Trump got elected. Flyover country has been seething with rage against the coasts for years, and in 2016 it finally reached critical mass and everything lined up for them to actually win an election. But because they were rage-voting, they elected a poo-throwing chimpanzee, knowing that they were doing so. And as emotionally satisfying as that may have been for them, the fact is we now have a poo-throwing chimpanzee in the White House with no grown up visibly in charge.
In addition to the fact that Pence’s job isn’t in any jeopardy, he’s also convinced that god has a plan for him and that Trump fits into it somehow. So I doubt he’d be tempting his deity so blatantly.
(And why is it that the god botherers never say that Obama or Clinton were god’s choice? Hell, based on the evidence, if god really cares about US Presidential elections it probably prefers the dems; it just hasn’t figured out how the electoral college works.)
@Saad, I guess, but more generally than that:
Fuck the pee tape.
As a trans* woman, no matter who I fuck, no matter how I fuck them, I’m by someone’s definition engaging in perverted sex. You can’t get me to say that massively perverted, hugely kinky, consensual sex is a reason to reject anyone.
If the President being caught having naughty sex is what causes Trump supporters to turn on him, revile him, and cast him out, then that just adds conclusive evidence of one more horrible tendency among trump supporters.
If you conclude that 2 + 2 = 4 because someone peed on a bed in Moscow, you’re still an idiot even though you managed to come up with the right answer. If you reject Pinochet because he thought pee is pretty or erotic or whatever, then your punishing tribalism doesn’t speak well of you because, hey, you happened to ostracize the right person this time.
I want the Trump supporters to ignore the pee tape. I want the pee tape to play no role whatsoever in Trump’s immediate removal from office and general political ostracism. I want the Trump supporters to reject the fucker, but I actually care about why they reject the fucker and the pee tape is not even on the list.
I think this was actually a ploy by the White House to distract from the really damaging Kavanaugh hearings. I don’t believe it was intended to hurt Trump at all. As a bonus for Republicans it got Bob Woodward’s book knocked down in the news cycle.
@What a Maroon, but also much more generally:
Pence’s job is in “jeopardy”. He’s not subject to firing, but he is subject to impeachment and the lap dog congressional Republicans could, theoretically, be convinced to impeach Pence
The NYTimes did not say that Trump could fire the person. They just said the job was “in jeopardy”. They didn’t even say how much jeopardy. I think rejecting Pence as a possibility is wrong.
If the author becomes known while the Trump administration still exists, or while a Republican occupies the office of the Presidency during a term to which Trump was elected, THEN I might care about who it was to some minor extent. Everyone working for Trump needs to go. If having written the editorial helps push them out the door, then fine, but I don’t think we should need that to fire every single enabler of this presidency.
But really, the take away shouldn’t be that the phrases surrounding this author’s anonymity might or might not exclude some particular person. The take away is that the author is using anonymity to attempt to defend everyone other than trump. The anonymity is a weapon. Focussing on identity rather than that the author is describing actions that betray the constitution and attempting to convince the public that traitors to the constitution are the real heroes here is buying into the same bullshit that Republicans use to defend confederate monuments to murderous, slavery-advocating traitors.
No, NYTimes author, you’re not the hero, and you’re not the noble traitor, and you’re not getting a statue in the town square. Fuck off forever.
Crip Dyke, #37
Sorry, my post makes it sound like that’s my view on the pee issue. I agree with you. I was talking about the blatant hypocrisy and double standards the GOP and their voters will display if pee tapes do come out.
If there’s one thing I’m sure of, it isn’t Pence. No way would a sitting Vice-President undermine a President given the obvious that they’re next in line for the office. Not that they couldn’t put someone else up to it, but they wouldn’t do it themselves.
@Saad:
Thanks. I feel better now.
@starfleetdude:
You mean, if they could anonymously get the NYTimes to publish damaging material, a Sitting VP might do it?
…and still, focus on the identity is not helping.
Crip Dyke, the NY Times knows who it is. Whether or not they’d publish the op-ed if it was Pence given the conflict of interest is something that’s not hard to answer, and that answer would be no.
As to identity, honestly, it could be any number of W.H. staff or Cabinet members. It’s not as if Trump hasn’t insulted, bullied, and trashed everyone who has ever interacted with him Except Putin.
@starfleetdude
Okay, but “The NYTimes wouldn’t let a sitting VP do that,” is a different argument than, “No way would a sitting VP do that.”
Also, you have a more generous opinion of the NYTimes than I. I’m not saying you’re wrong (at least with the new argument), but I am saying that I wouldn’t trust them that far. They give every indication that their editorial page is dominated by sucking up to power generally, and if they have of late become more specifically opposed to Trump but retain that tendency to suck up to power, well, to my mind that would make a self-serving insider’s account that makes Trump look bad all the more tempting.
Are there ethics strong enough to refuse the editorial solely because it came from someone in the line of succession? Does that mean that they’d refuse such an editorial from the Speaker of the House (2nd in line of succession)?
Again, I won’t go so far as to argue that you’re wrong, I’m just admitting that I am not nearly as optimistic as you appear to be.
Not being optimistic, but given the NY Times printing such an anonymous op-ed was an extraordinary thing to do journalistically, I think they’d never do it if it had been written by a Vice-President.
As for the NYT sucking up to power, you’re reinforcing the ‘Deep State’ rationalization that defenders of Trump have used. Considering all the revelations we already know about Trump and his terrible character, from the Access Hollywood tape, to Wolff’s book Fire and Fury, and now Woodward’s Fear, the context of this op-ed is that even the W.H. staff and Cabinet are verifying Trump’s unfitness for office. Trump doesn’t just look bad, he IS bad and everyone knows it. The emperor has no clothes.
My guess is that it’s Don, Jr.!
How hilarious would that be?
But they’d still need 2/3rds of the Senate to agree that this all amounts to high crimes and misdemeanors. Seems remote, at best; I don’t think the Dems would play along.
This I agree with.
the op-ed says one thing which has been said before maybe with more weight or at least adding more weight that there is no one in charge that it is in a kind of chaos. the pee tape is almost meaningless except to his wife maybe depending how the pre-nup is structured certainly for the deplorables it is they might actually see as a positive thing secretly wishing they could get away with it it is a perk of obscene wealth proofing how great he is.
What Putin has on him is simply debt financial debt from years of money laundering for the Russian mob.
The problem for the GOP and for the country as a whole stems from a war with reality,, the GOP has a very hard time taking the world as it is and would rather have it the way they believe it to be, of their current policies I see none that do not have at the root that flaw.
That is what the con-man thrives on the desire on the marks part to get something for nothing.
Some will never accept the reality of their choices nor the reality of the situation and will die believing the BS.
it is going to be a long way down from this fall.
uncle frogy
The Onion weighs in.
I see all of them writing it. Even the T-man could be in on it…to engage in a Jones-level cook up. I see it as kayfabe, and even breaking kayfabe is kayfabe. It’s a distraction from what’s going on that really matters to them. How’s that Senate confirmation hearing going? Will Booker’s move reveal anything? Will anyone notice? And oh yeah, the country is better off, safer, and more prosperous now.
See Card Stacking .
My feelings exactly—but if the author had any courage, he’d/she’d start naming names, and hopefully the sheer volume of anti-Trumpists within the White House would give outsiders a bit of thought; maybe something like, “If that many people have been protecting us from Trump’s more maniacal ideas and plans, how much of a nutbar is he?” Beyond that, it’s way past 25th Amendment time, even if it means that Pence becomes president.
If it isn’t ‘lodestar Pence’, then its somebody who wanted to make it look like it could be him. That possibility is kinda interesting, especially since the NY Times allowed that obvious ‘clue’ to filter through. Either way, the Resistance author shot off everything from the neck down.
It’s the same thing they pulled with Bush, really. They’re going to use him for as long as he’s useful, and then when he inevitably fucks up and threatens the party, there will be a concerted push to tell everyone how he wasn’t truly conservative anyway. It’s not the fault of the republican platform, no, if he’d have followed it things would have gone great!
I find Trump monumentally sad, more than anything. Say what you will about Bush, he knew that he wasn’t very bright, and he delegated things to his cabinet. Trump truly seems to believe that he is a genius, that he’s brilliant. He’s so stupid that he doesn’t even realize he’s stupid, and that literally everyone around him is either manipulating him, using him, or actively working against him.
Still better than having Pence in charge though. At least Trump occasionally screws things up for his own side too. Pence is actually a competent politician.
@#53, rcs619:
I have exactly the opposite reactions to Bush and Trump. Bush is sad because he knew that no matter what he “achieved”, he was ultimately a puppet who was only being permitted near the levers of power as a figurehead and that, if he hadn’t had the support of much smarter, more talented, and/or richer people, he would never have gotten where he did. I think he was bright enough to realize that, although that was probably the limit of his self-awareness. Trump, on the other hand, is… missing things inside his head, I think. It’s harder to argue — based on the list of characteristics, examples of other people who had it, and his own appearances — that he doesn’t have Narcissistic Personality Disorder than that he does, and the same goes for a few other issues. It doesn’t matter what happens to him, he’s incapable of realizing his own failings or feeling upset by them. He could be handcuffed, perp-walked out of the White House, tried by a jury who found him guilty instantly and unanimously, hit with rotten tomatoes, and thrown into prison, and he wouldn’t feel the slightest bit of shame or remorse. He’d just be angry that he was being denied comfort and ego-stroking. That has no pathos.
The pee tape was interesting, not because it was a bit kinky or a bit naughty-sex, but because the root of that rumour was it showed Hair Furor’s racism. The bed was defiled because the Obamas had slept in it.
On a separate note: It’s great to hear USAnians talking openly and widely about impeachment at last. But arguing about who the op-ed author is is just a distraction: we’re all playing Fantasy Politics here, like we always do when we’re being distracted from the thing we should be watching.
Could it be that the anonymous o=auther was hoping to goad the Angry Cheeto into a cerebral aneurysm?
Cubist, #56 wrote:
Why do we need to twist our brains into pretzels trying to imagine some scenario where this is a clever play from a master of 23-dimensional chess, when avarice, corruption, and cowardice explain it perfectly well?
Just seen: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/09/07/barack-obama-preview-midterm-elections-message-chicago-speech/1218153002/